Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders Has Become The First To Completely Master Reddit

Though it's not uncommon for high-profile politicians to trek
to social news juggernaut Reddit to participate in one of its famous "Ask
Me Anything" Q&A sessions, one U.S. senator in particular
has become a prominent and active user of the
site.

That senator is Vermont
Independent Bernie Sanders,
who has been active on the Politics "subreddit" section
and has made "The Front Page of the Internet" multiple times in
just one month.

Sanders has taken to
the Vermont
"subreddit" to invite constituents to a showing
of "Lincoln"in St. Johnsbury and a
hangout session afterward.

Sanders' immediate popularity on the site has been fueled by
his interest in many progressive issues that are staples of the
Politics subreddit, such "Too Big to Fail," the progressive tax
structure, student loan reform and youth unemployment.

We talked over email with the Senator to find out more about
his Reddit prowess.

On what led him to gravitate to Reddit over other
social networks:

"Reddit connects millions of users and allows them to
democratically rate and share ideas.

"This is a perfect way to let people know what we are working on
and to get feedback from the public. I’ve been pleased to see so
many people willing to engage."

How direct
engagement over Reddit helped him pursue his goals on the
Hill:

"Social media can be a great way to speak directly to the public
and get feedback about issues that are overlooked or ignored by
the mainstream media.

"I think people are eager to tell their elected officials what
they think and social media allows them another way to speak
their minds."

Why
Reddit's politics subreddit, moreso than many mainstream
publications, is much more interested in issues like "Too Big To
Fail," student loan reform and income
inequality:

"I think this is a very important
observation because this gets to the fact that the issues that
most people are concerned about are not always those being
covered by corporate media.

"People are concerned about
the shrinking middle class, students graduating with massive
debt and Wall Street greed causing enormous damage to our
economy.

"I’m not surprised to see
that these are the issues that are popular on Reddit because I
hear about them everywhere.

"The media need to do a
better job addressing the issues that truly impact people’s
lives, rather than focusing on political gossip and
sensationalism."

How lawmakers can engage directly with people
through sites like Reddit:

"When I am not in DC, I spend
most of my time in Vermont talking directly with
constituents. I suspect that, over the years, I have held
more town meetings than any other public official in Vermont
history – many hundreds of meetings.

These are simple and
straight-forward meetings where Vermonters and I talk about the
issues that are on their minds.

Social media is a great way to
connect but it’s also very important that lawmakers spend time
getting to know the people they represent."